Saturday, July 16, 2011

Zena Shteysel, is the mastermind behind Zpalettes. She's an award winning US makeup artist and member of the Emmy award nominated Dancing With The Stars makeup team. If anyone knows the importance of being ready and organised it's Zena for sure. Besides being a real pro, she's also a lovely and kind person and I'm glad to have the wonderful Zpalettes in the catalog of Promakeupstore. Promakeupstore carries both Yaby empty palettes and Zpalettes, which you prefer is actually very personal. Below is a picture, courtesy of Zena from Zpalette, showing the 2 palettes side by side for your comparison.

Zpalettes are empty freestyle palettes with a magnetic base to hold makeup pans, made out of recyclable cardboard which makes them extremely environmentally friendly and lightweight as well. They come in 3 sizes, small square and large rectangular, and the even larger Pro version which is brand new to the collection. They also come in funky designs like leopard, zebra, pink and always stylish all black. Zpalettes have a see through lid so you can see in one glance what's in them. Sometimes pans of certain brands won't stick to the magnetic base as much as you'd like. For that we have magnetic stickers, either from Zpalette or the grippies from Yaby. The Yaby's come in 2 sizes, 13 and 23 mm round, the Zpalette stickers come in one size squares.

Stick them on the bottom of the reluctant pan and voila!

The Yaby palettes are all white and the same size, but come in a different variety inside: 6-well (for powder foundations), 8-well (for creme foundations and blushers), 20-well (for concealers and lip colors), 40-well (shown above, for eyeshadow, pearl paint and cake liners), freestyle with no wells for all shapes and sizes, and 21-well custom for all of the Yaby refills. Obviously the Yaby freestyle is the one to compare to the Zpalette and they each have their own merits, with the Yaby being in between the small and large Zpalette sizes, and featuring a stainless steel mirror/mixing palette. It's up to you to decide what you prefer in a palette. I personally carry both in my kit for different reasons and like them equally. Of course you can use Yaby empties in 3 sizes to fill with your own creme products to use in your Yaby palettes or your Zpalettes.

This is what Youtube and makeup guru Koren Zander has to say about Zpalettes:

Thursday, July 14, 2011

YabyCosmetics was developed by Canadian makeup artist Liz Yu.. She developed the brand with her peers in mind, knowing first hand how we always have way too much stuff in our kits and everybody is always trying to condense. Yaby is actually the reason I started PROMAKEUPSTORE in the first place in 2008! I had the pleasure of meeting Liz for the first time at IMATS London in 2010.I already used Yaby as a makeup artist before I started selling the brand and I have never seen shadows so pigmented in my entire career. A lot has been said on their small size, but for me that's more an advantage than anything else. Yes, I want to have every color under the sun in my kit, but I don't want my kit to weigh a ton. And that's exactly what you can achieve with these palettes. After all I do want a bright yellow and an acid green shadow just in case I might need it some day, but I don't need them to be the size of a dollar (or a euro for that matter). They would last me my entire career AND my back would go out from carrying all that stuff around. So before being put off by the size, think about the advantages. With this kind of pigment you aren't likely to run out of a color any time soon, even though they are small. If you need to replace a color in the palette, just press down on one side of the pan until it flips up, take it out and replace it with a full pan! It's that easy. Another plus is that they are vegan!

The four eyeshadow palettes each contain 40 shades of eyeshadow.The "World of Pearl Paints Palette" contains all 40 Yaby Pearl Paint eyeshadows. Of the 2 kinds of shadows, these have the most pigment and they are all shimmery, and waterproof after application. They go on like paint and then dry to a powder that won't budge. I use these even on the waterline instead of pencil. Mixed with FACE Atelier Transforming Gel the possibilities are endless!The Pearl Paint palette is 115 euros and refills are 2.80 including tax.

The "Dramatically Neutral Palette" contains a collection of 40 nude, brown, grey, blue, pink and black shadows in both matte and sheen finishes. For clean commercial and bridal looks you can't go wrong with this palette. The full palette is 95 euros.

Finally, the "Best of Both Worlds Palette" contains a selection of 40 best selling pearl paints and eyeshadow shades. This one is a great starter palette for first time Yaby users as well as those people who are serious about condensing their kit. Full palette is 100 euros, refills are 2,25 for the eyeshadows and 2,80 for the pearl paints.

Of course you can always buy an empty 40-well palette and start your own custom Yaby palette as you see fit!

Friday, July 1, 2011

It's been a while since the last post on the Oscars and a lot has happened in between. Our new website for Promakeupstore is about to launch and this blog will become a part or the new setup. All new updates will be shown at the bottom of each store page as they are published and as always I welcome readers to participate, comment and discuss the topics and the store.

Sales, promotions and give-aways will be announced on Twitter, Facebook obviously, but there will also be special blog promotions, the first one being around our 3 year anniversary next September.

The store couldn't do so well without all its loyal customers (yes that would be YOU) so I think it's only fair to give something back and share whats going on behind the scenes, in the office, on my jobs as a makeup artist (not nearly as glamourous as you might think trust me) and in what little spare time I have left.

A new start justifies a new name, and what better name than what sums up this life.

About Me

Please feel free to leave comments and start discussions, I always welcome these.
I have been a makeup artist for 20 years, working in fashion, tv and catwalk. Besides makeup, I love cooking, movies, singing, and pets.